The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).

Sunday, June 05, 2016

Memphis Pyramid Site of Spree

Memphis, Tennessee, was named after Memphis, Egypt. Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Mit Rahina, 20 km (12 mi) south of Giza.

Memphis was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah (meaning "Enclosure of the ka of Ptah"), was one of the most prominent structures in the city. The name of this temple, rendered in Greek as Aί γυ πτoς (Ai-gy-ptos) by the historian Manetho, is believed to be the etymological origin of the modern English name Egypt.

Memphis is closely associated with the ancient Egypt's capital city site, 25 km south of Cairo. This is where the cemeteries, or necropolises, of Memphis, and the famous pyramids of Egypt and the Great Sphinx are located.

(For more on the use of Egyptian names in this part of the country, see "#9 The Little Egypt Triangle," here.)

Memphis, Tennessee, was the focus of a shooting spree on 6.4.2016. The outcome was the death of a policeman.

Some of the highlights of the story are noted here:

An 18-year veteran of the Memphis Police Department died Saturday night, [June 4, 2016,] after being struck downtown by the vehicle of a fleeing shooting suspect.
Verdell Smith, 46, died at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis....no charges have been filed yet against the suspect who felled Smith, who left a father, fiance and children.
Smith was struck after the unidentified suspect, who was taken into custody and transported to the Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition, shot three people during a spree that began in the Pinch District at Westy's Restaurant and Bar and spilled over to Bass Pro Shops before ending near Beale and Third streets.

...Police at Main and Exchange heard shots at 9:55 p.m. and found two male victims at Westy's. They were transported to Regional Medical Center and remained in critical condition.
At 10:02 p.m.,...police got a call to the nearby Bass Pro, where a male employee had been shot. He was taken to Regional Medical Center in noncritical condition.
The suspect fled in a silver vehicle and was spotted on Riverside Drive before officers lost sight near the interstate.
...Police weren't sure what route the suspect took next, but he ended up at Beale and Third as officers were working to clear the area. That's where Smith was struck.
The suspect was taken into custody after a foot chase.
Martin Norris and Jake Schorr IV, employees of Westy’s, said a man walked up from the south on Main Street, talking loudly to himself, pulled a handgun and shot two customers who were sitting at a picnic table in front of the restaurant.
Norris and Schorr chased the man down the block, but he crossed Front Street and jumped a fence, heading toward the parking lot of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.

There, truck driver Luis Cortez of Laredo, Texas, was exiting Bass Pro with his family when he heard gunshots in the parking lot. Cortez said the victim appeared to be a store employee who had been collecting shopping carts.
Cortez said he saw a car near the victim, but couldn’t see inside it because of dark-tinted windows. The car sped away and the victim ran to the store entrance, Cortez said.
Memphis resident Tina Jamison said she was on Beale when the crash occurred, and she approached officers on the street.
"We heard on the scanner, 'officer down,'" Jamison said.
She said when she heard commotion, she initially thought there had been a fight on Beale.
"They told us to go inside one of the restaurants," she said. ~ Commercial Appeal.

In 2015, Bass Pro Shops opened its very own monument. At 32 stories tall, this superstore is the sixth largest pyramid in the world.

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June 4: This Date in History

June 4, 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee.

"Beale Street! Beale, isn't that one of the [synchromystic], infamous names that keep reappearing in news and history that you've mentioned a few times?"

Yes, it is, as a version of “Bell.” Recall, in Jim Brandon's 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, he mentions "names like Bell, Beall and variants.” One of those would be “Beale."

I specifically noted "Howard Beale," the TV news anchorman who rallies the nation to shout “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” in Network (1976).

Also, "A New Day" wonders, "What's with the pyramid? When I think of outdoors, hunting & fishing, the last thing I think of is an Egyptian pyramid! Roadside attraction or something more initiatory?"

The pyramid has everything to do with the link that the original named Memphis has to Egypt.

For more on the use of Egyptian names in this part of the country, see "#9 The Little Egypt Triangle" in http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2015/08/10Triangles.html

Weird. Memphis has been on my mind a bit lately. Just yesterday I was telling a friend I spent my 10th birthday at Mud Island in Memphis. Anyway, four years ago I wrote a piece about the Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn., and its weird origins. http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-grit/its-strange-history-memphis-pyramid-become-bass-pro-shop

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About Me

Investigator of human and animal mysteries since 1960. Swamp Thing character "Coleman Wadsworth" in #4:7 and more in #4:8, is a tribute.
Author of over 35 books, including The Unidentified (1975), Mysterious America (1983/2007), Suicide Clusters (1987), Cryptozoology A to Z (1999), Bigfoot! (2003), The Copycat Effect (2004), and field guides.
Educated in anthropology-zoology at SIU-Carbondale, and psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work. Began doctoral work in anthropology (Brandeis University) and family violence (UNH). Taught at NE universities (1980 to 2003), while concurrently a senior researcher at the Muskie School (1983 to 1996), before retiring to write, lecture, consult, & open museum. Popular documentary course was taught for 23 semesters; appeared on C2C, The Larry King Show, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, In Search Of, and other tv programs.
Loren Coleman is a dedicated father (Caleb, Malcolm, Des), cryptozoologist, media consultant, and baseball fan.